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Prevalence and Control of
Infectious Diseases
From the table of infectious diseases set-out on page 40, it will
be seen that 1,579 cases of infectious diseases were notified during
the year, as against 781 in 1952. The Infectious Sickness Rate for
the district was therefore 21.89 as compared with 10.77 during the
previous year.
The increase in the total number of infectious disease cases
notified during the year was due almost entirely to a rise in the
notifications of pertussis (132 as against 40 in 1952), measles (1073
as against 421 in 1952), and dysentery (94 as against 17 in 1952).
I would repeat what I have stated from time to time in my
reports to the Public Health Committee, and what I have set out
in this Report for previous years, namely the fact that the type of
disease met with, so far as the commoner infectious diseases are
concerned, is extremely mild. Indeed, the whole picture has
changed in regard to the older infectious diseases, so much so that,
for instance, the present type of scarlet fever can scarcely be compared
with the more severe manifestation with which we were
familiar before the war.
The change in severity of quite a few of the older type of
infectious diseases, together with the virtual disappearance of some
infectious diseases and the appearance for the first time of others,
is a matter which has received considerable attention from
epidemiologists. The reasons are far from simple, including as they
do a number of associated factors of varying significance. It is
highly improbable that the true explanation has yet been found,
although it will scarcely be necessary to say that there must be a
clearly defined reason behind the changing pattern.
This brings up two further points regarding epidemiology,
both of which I have referred to before.
In the first place, although we can congratulate ourselves on
the mildness of most of the infectious diseases which have recently
manifested themselves in the Borough, this state of affairs should
not give rise to complacency. Although the high standard of health
among our infants and school children, together with the care given
to these children by Southgate parents, very possibly contributes to
the absence of complications and sequelae, it must be appreciated
that a general fall in severity, so far as a number of infectious
diseases are concerned, has been reported from all parts of the
country. In other words, we are part of a nation-wide rather than
local pattern.
We must also be prepared for a return to the more serious
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